My DIY Projects and Great Adventures

[DrNip]

Ok what’s going on here that it stinks? Did you try bending the wire and tore the lead? Hard to tell.

[DrNip]

Also looking at the mold I forgot that I modded it to a 90 degree hook. You could use the wire insert I suggest and use the 90 degree cavity I created of the next head for most the wire insert. Wouldn’t take much to get it to work.



I have nodded so many molds and have had many work and not work Takes practice.

[Micanopy]

The what stinks is that my pictures didn’t show, even after I previewed them. There are these little attachment links everywhere. I posted them again but without placement with words, I don’t see how anyone can follow along. You think the wires were a failure when in fact they were a grand success.

[Micanopy]

The what stinks is that my pictures didn’t show, even after I previewed them. There are these little attachment links everywhere. I posted them again but without placement with words, I don’t see how anyone can follow along. You think the wires were a failure when in fact they were a grand success.

[DockShootinJack]

Mold mod looks good

[DrNip]

Ok I gotcha.

[Micanopy]

Look Mom !

No split rings.



Just a swivel in the wire loop at one end, and I cut one side of the swivel’s other loop, near where it comes out of sleeve. Eased the blade in the gap and then squeezed the one wire to capture. Ignoring other side of that loop. It spins fine and survived the pull test. Easy to do. I like easy and it is faster than using those little bitty split rings. Clip- insert-squeeze closed.

My next batch will be 1/16 and 1/8 in the mix. The mold modification is such a slight thing I went ahead and filed both of those cavities, too. Eventually I will probably mod the FreeStyle mold as well. I like the way large eyes fit on those jigs.

I want to work my way down sizing. Smaller and smaller. I have some 1/32 ounce spin blade jigs I bought from Amazon when I first started, but the hooks are tiny and weak. I can make 1/16th oz sizes with a size # 1 hook, use a shorter piece of wire and a smaller blade and the cut swivel trick to make a compact and short underspin.

I have the Pony Head Jig Molds in 1/16th and 1/8th ounce sizes, six cavities each all the same sizes. It’s ok I guess but what a pain to paint, and the swivel is angled, stressed while being pulled. The new design will easily out spin it. It will also beat it at slow speeds. I thought I did well getting both those molds but nope.

I can see where modding molds is popular. Again Do-It should be interested as well but they aren’t. I am trying everything it seems and still managing to avoid shooting my own plastics. I would be handing those out by the pound. LOL

[Micanopy]

I hooked a real pig. I saw the rod bend double over, and could easy see it was big. As he got close I grabbed the net and proceeded to bump him with it and gone. I tried to scoop him but he was too fast. He was very large.

I noticed that the rods out the sides catch most of the fish, but the two straight out the back of the boat catch the big ones. I use 1/4 Bat Jigs with Stroll’Rs on them as they can be kept in close to the boat and still gain some depth. Ended my day with about a dozen, of which all but one was nicely sized. The fish above being the largest and all released.

The new spinner design works better than the Herring Head. The HH swims cocked at an odd angle. The blade separates away from the jig and it looks odd. The new design swims straight and level. The fish hit them a few times but mostly wanted a Stroll’R on a jig head no spinner.

My friend was out there with old cowboy again. They fish a dozen rods or so and always seem to catch a ton of fish. He called me and got me to leave my area of the lake to go fish his, and while there were more fish on the screen, that didn’t work out to more fish in the boat. It certainly looks like a thermocline on the screen, too. 9 feet deep and about four of those feet look like they are a thermocline.

Maybe this weekend will be nice and I can go again.

[Chuck Adams]

Good deal!!
Putting in the work pays off.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[Micanopy]

So I decided to modify my FreeStyle mold. It simply could not have been any simpler, and turned out perfectly. I was able to lay the hook in the groove and then the wire alongside and it closed every time. Well almost every time. I think I am going to order some magnet strips with adhesive backing to lay down inside the mold. This to prevent movement. Once set, hopefully every thing would stay put.

I poured up a pile of 1/16th ounce heads and powder painted them white. The wire extension was rock solid. No wiggle. The mold cavity filled in its regular fashion with a few odd shapes in the mix. These will get small blades and 2” curly tail grubs. They will be my way back lures.

My lakes are all shallow, so getting down to 12 feet is never required. Today I fished in 8 feet and the fish were hitting jigs close to the boat. So maybe two feet deep, maybe less. I can set these light weight jigs out and if they need to be slightly deeper, well it will be very easy to manage.

I still like the idea of having large heavy jigs straight out the back of the boat to entice those beasts. Nothing is quite as fun as the thrill of losing a trophy. There will be other beasts and so I plan to keep with the quarter ounce heads and BG Stroll’Rs as my big boy jigs.

I am stocked up with curly tail grubs now and have skewered them with my ready to go jig heads. 2” and 3” in assorted colors, with three weights of heads- 1/16, 1/8, 1/4 ounce. The 2” grubs match nicely with the 1/16th oz heads and the 3” with the 1/8th and 1/4 oz sizes.

The Stroll’Rs are said to be 2.75” and I put those with all three sizes of heads. I suspect that I will be discovering favs along the way, and probably need to order additional flavors. No way am I going to start shooting plastic though. No way. Too much effort, thought, and money.

Saw that Bob’s Jigs is back in business after his move to Texas. He has a Minnow looking plastic that looks nice and another one that I like. Probably need to place an order.